Austerlitz
"In December 1804, the Anglo-Swedish agreement led to the creation of the Third Coalition against France. By April 1805, Britain and Russia had signed a treaty of alliance. Austria joined the coalition a few months later. On December 2, 1805, the French army defeated the Russo-Austrian army at Austerlitz near Brno in Moravia. At about 9:00 AM Napoleon ordered the attack, adding 'One sharp blow, and the war is over'. The Battle of the Three Emperors, Napoleon's greatest victory, destroyed the Third Coalition." Features Autodeploy - Napoleon Starting Neutrals Victory Condition - The French Centre and the Allied Centre. In more clarification: Alexandre, Pratzen, Napoleon. These next regions are all divisions - They are either cavalry (Regions with horses) or infantry (Regions with soldiers). Kolowrat, Milodoravich, Maliutin, Kologrivov, Von Essen, Saint Hilaire, Beaumont, Vandamme, Bessieres, Oudinot, Nansouty, De la Raffiniere, Walther, D'hautpoul, Drouet. Note that Hohenloe and Liechtenstein are not a part of this condition even though they appear to be in the French Centre. The best way to look at this is that those two regions are not French because they are red regions, where blue regions represent the French. The only tricky one is Caffarelli, it is not included although it is close to the line of the French Centre. The victory condition is rarely used. If you are able to hold this vastly large amount of regions you are likely to win the game without this condition. Key points Make sure you know what the colors mean! The blue regions are French, the green and red regions are Russo-Austrian. The black and white regions are villages. Also know that horses may attack two connecting regions away. Another point on zones. If it says "French Left Flank", you look at the brackets at the side of the map to see what each specific zone encompasses. After you see what regions are encompassed, you see which regions are French regions (The blue territories represents the French). So, for the French Left Flank zone, you need to hold Suchet, Caffarelli and Kellerman. Settings Manual drop This setting becomes a bit hectic. In a two player game, deploying all troops on a single cavalry and going first is a big advantage! You can then attack your opponent and avoid many neutrals, as you normally wouldn't be able to in most other maps since the cavalry gives you an attack range of two. In a game with more players in it, manual doesn't make that much of a difference since your region count is so low to begin with. In fact, it can hurt you because if you leave 1s on the board, you risk losing your existence in any given area of the map. The small deploy hinders the effect of the cavalry since you have less troops to assault with. Flat rate, no spoils Getting a zone early on can be critical in this type, especially in No Spoils. Getting a Flank quickly puts you at a big advantage, and defend it as well as you can so no one will take the zone. Whenever an opponent tries to get a zone themselves, you can take it away. You don't have to stay super spread out, since it is fairly easy to navigate the map quickly due to the Cavalry being able to assault two regions away, but don't be caught without having troops in any one area of the map. Getting Napoleon early on and reinforcing it can also be very beneficial. If your opponent has a flank, try to utilize the cavalry (such as Hohenloe to Kellerman, Kienmayer to Dokturov, etc) as much as possible since, due to their two region reach, it is less regions to conquer and less troops to waste. If you don't use the cavalry, you have to conquer more regions and have to leave behind a troop each time you do. Conquering less regions lets you use more troops on other regions, therefore having better odds. Escalating Having your troops spread out is not really a key component here (In 3-5 player games), however it is always better to stay spread out in escalating games. The cavalry is what lets you roam this map with ease. With an assault range of 2 regions, navigating this map is simple, especially towards the north of the map. Since there are less cavalry in the south, keep some troops down there just to hold it until you need the cavalry. 3-4 players: Since the smallest bonus zone requires at least 3 regions (Besides Napoleon), it may be difficult to get a bonus zone without taking a few turns. These zones include French Left Flank, Allied Left Flank and Villages. If you have 2 of the 3, go for it. If an opponent has 2 of the 3, don't go for one yourself unless you have 2 of the 3 as well. Chances are your opponent will get their bonus before you do and he won't let you keep it. Napoleon is always a good option - just make sure that the turn you take it to have it reinforced enough so that no one will bother it. 5-8 players: You should only think about getting a bonus zone in a 5 player game - If you stay too confined you are in for a little trouble. It is unlikely to start with 2 out of 3 regions in any zone (The unlikeliness increases with larger amounts of players. If you get 2 out of the 3, go for it. You'll be at a big advantage early on if you can hold it. Unlike games with less players, spreading out with 6-8 players is key here. The first turn, you should deploy 1 troop to 3 regions that are far away from each other so you most likely will hold them for a little while. The next turn, deploy 1 troop on your region farthest away from your others, 2 on another and start taking spoils. Stacking on cavalry is a good idea since you have many more spoil spots (Regions with one troop on it, so getting a card requires the least amount of troops possible) and you can navigate the map faster. 1v1 One good strategy is just assaulting the opponent. Forget about zones and all of that - Just keep assaulting and that works well. Do not assault 3 on 2, and do not assault with 2 troops. This is because hammering them early gets their region count down early, and a troop deploy increase from 3 to 4 can be very advantageous. Another strategy is going for the Flanks, and this works even better when playing with fog of war. Do not go for the Flanks if 2 out of the 3 of them are neutral. The map is small, so wasting your troops on neutral troops could lead do your downfall. Villages are a good idea, especially if you have two of the three. If you have one of the three, see if you have multiple regions that border the village so you can defend it without wasting your deploy on defending something you don't have. The +1 autodeploy on Napoleon can also be beneficial, just make sure to reinforce it the turn you take it. Team games Triples and quadruples: The first thing to do is target a member of the opposing team. Find out what opposing player borders at least one region of your team. Attack that player solely. Once this player is eliminated, this cuts their deploy by three and that's no small amount on this map. Once one player is gone, target another, rinse and repeat until you win. When playing with fog of war, target the person you can see the MOST of. However, if you cannot see all of their regions and you have gotten that player down to one region, there's a chance that the other team will start stacking troops on that player to avoid elimination. If you see a stack, it is then time to target the weakest player. It's only easy to save one player, saving two gets harder for the defense. If you can grab Napoleon without the other team seeing you, that would help you. 4 player doubles games: In no spoils, it's normally better to not take out any neutrals as you don't have many troops to spare. If there is any place on the map where, if you attack your opponent and can end up with a bonus, do it. If your partner has 1 region in it, have your partner fortify it, any more than two regions and it hurts you too much. With spoils, it's best to just hammer your opponent and hope the spoils help you early on. 6 player doubles games: This setting works best with Flat Rate or Escalating spoils. Be sure to not attack solely one team - this increases the odds of the last team sneaking up from behind and wiping both other teams out. It's best to make eliminations when you can midcash (cashing midturn, this is only possible when you have five or more spoils after eliminating a player) with the spoils so you aren't left at the disadvantage of a smaller amount of troops. 8 player doubles games: Same thing with 6 player doubles, don't attack one team solely because it will just weaken you both to where it will be hard to come back. Take cards, stack your armies and go on a run with eliminations and midcashes.